BALTIMORE, MD – Seven former Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse players, as well as head coach Dave Pietramala, head athletic trainer Brad Mountcastle and strength and conditioning coach Jay Dyer, will be at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida this weekend for the ninth annual Champion Challenge. The seven former players are all bidding for one of the 23 roster spots available on Team USA, which will compete in the 2014 FIL World Championships from July 10-19 in Denver.

Pietramala is serving as an assistant coach for Team USA, while Mountcastle and Dyer were selected as the head athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach, respectively. Pietramala was a member of Team USA in 1990 and 1994 and helped the red, white & blue to the world championship in both of those years. This is the first time he has been a member of the team’s coaching staff.

The 51 players still competing for a roster spot were recently divided into two teams (Blue & White), which will play on Sunday (January 26) at 1:30 pm at the Wide World of Sports Complex. The game can be seen live on Watch ESPN and will be rebroadcast on ESPNU at 10 pm that evening.

Former Johns Hopkins players who are among the 51 remaining candidates for a spot on Team USA include:

BALTIMORE – The Loyola University Maryland men’s lacrosse team will participate in the Champion® Challenge, a US Lacrosse event, and face the United States National Team in an exhibition game on Sunday, January 27, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

The game will pit the defending NCAA (Loyola) and Federation of International Lacrosse (U.S.A.) champions in a game that will be featured on ESPNU and ESPN3.com.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to go down to Florida to play against the best of what the United States has to offer,” said Loyola Head Coach Charley Toomey. “We will use this game as a stepping stone for some tough early season matchups.”

Loyola won its first-ever NCAA Division I National Championship in May, defeating the University of Maryland, 9-3, in the title game on Memorial Day in Foxborough, Mass. The U.S. National Team claimed the most recent FIL World Championship in 2010 and will bring approximately 45 players to the Challenge in January for evaluation prior to tryouts for the2014 U.S. Men’s National Team.

The Champion® Challenge will also feature a Men’s National Team game against the University of Notre Dame, which Loyola edged, 7-5, in the NCAA Semifinal. The U.S. Women’s National Team will face Northwestern University, the defending NCAA Champion, and Syracuse University, as well, during the weekend of competition.

Further details about the event, including a game time, will be released at a later date.

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